Both the SPEEA WEU Negotiation Team and Bargaining Unit Council recommended approval of the contract which secures guaranteed minimum wage increases, reduced benefits costs and improved job security related to outsourcing.

Although we hit roadblocks during the talks, we believe the offer achieved much of what our members said was important to them,” said Matthew Joyce, chair of the SPEEA team and a Spirit engineer. “With outstanding membership support, we were able to reach a majority of our goals.”

Members check in at Tuesday's meeting.

WEU Contract

Yes

NO

232

19

92%

8%

Contract highlights and the complete contract are available below. Additional information is on the WEU Negotiation Page.

Spirit AeroSystems and the Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) Negotiation Team announced tentative agreement Nov. 29 for a new six-year contract agreement. Both the WEU team and Bargaining Unit Council recommend members vote to accept this offer.

SPEEA members vote Dec. 11

SPEEA members will cast their ballots Tuesday, Dec. 11, at Curtis Middle School (1031 S. Edgemoor). Doors open at 4:30 p.m., the SPEEA meeting will start at 5 p.m., and ballot boxes will close at the conclusion of the meeting.

Ballots will be counted immediately after the meeting with results posted at www.speea.org.

If you are a member who is unable to vote in person because of travel, you can request an absentee e-mail ballot by 5 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 6. Send an email tovickim@speea.org.

You must state your reason for this request in your reply. Examples: Working in Seattle or other travel assignments.

You must include your employee ID.

Your absentee ballot is due by Tuesday, Dec. 11.

Absentee ballots are returned to a special Tellers’ email address, so the voter cannot be anonymous. The ballot will be counted and verified
by at least two Tellers. A printout of the ballot will be sealed and retained as a voting record.

Who can vote?

Voting is for dues-paying members represented by the WEU. If you are covered by this contract and want to vote, sign and submit a membership card. If you sign up to become a member at the vote Dec. 11, photo identification will be required. SPEEA Membership Application

Working internally this morning to assess where we are in contract negotiations with Spirit leadership, our WEU Team thought it important to outline to members the roadblocks mentioned in yesterday’s message.

Medical Costs – Spirit leadership wants engineers to pay more than any other employee group at the Wichita facility for medical coverage. The most recent contract pass from Spirit includes an immediate monthly contribution increase from 15% to 20% for the Core plan. The Enhanced plan has no changes in the plan or the monthly contributions. The company contribution to your Personal Care Account remains half of the WTPU levels. This means WEU will pay more than any other group of employees for medical and the medical plans will be the worst medical plans of any employee group at Spirit Wichita.

Compensation - Conversations have yet to yield a package that addresses the attraction and retention problems, much less recognizing the engineers as the center of value creation at Spirit.

Performance Management (PM) - Regardless of your current performance score, Spirit leadership believes 70% of engineers are rated too high and your scores should be lowered. The most recent language allows Spirit to lay off engineers by level. This can include the top performers at the company. This eliminates the protections engineers have seen during their career. Spirit insists there are too many engineers rated as high performers. Spirit leadership also wants to move more engineers into the “Not Met” and “Partial Met” ratings to fulfill the company’s desired distribution. The company acknowledged that their plan is arbitrary. Spirit’s desired distribution is not based on any industry studies or best practices, nor gives any credence to the experience and expertise resident in the WEU workforce.

Outsourcing & Job Security – Spirit leadership wants the ability to replace higher-level engineers with lower-level (lower cost) engineers. In addition, leaders want to expand outsourcing to Infosys while laying off Wichita engineers. Spirit had 280 contractors working in 2008. Our existing contract provides job protections from those contractors. Spirit now has a very limited number of contractors. However, the company has “Partnerships” and “Joint Ventures” with Infosys (India) and Progresstech (Russia) where hundreds of engineers are performing work for Wichita. The company states that utilizing these non-direct engineers is less expensive. When we asked if Spirit believes it is OK to lay off direct engineers in Wichita while keeping engineers working in India, the answer was short and to the point: “Absolutely.”

Successor Agreement – Spirit is refusing to provide contractual protections in the event of a plant sale, divestiture or transfer of assets. What this means is that if Spirit sells, divests, or transfers assets involving the Wichita plant in the future, the contract becomes null and void. Spirit leadership refuses to provide any legally enforceable language.

While these roadblocks are significant, Spirit leadership has the ability to address each and every one of them. Our team remains focused on securing an agreement that meets the needs of members and all stake holders. Showing your support in the workplace by wearing red shirts each Friday, displaying visibility items, talking to coworkers and managers about the importance of these negotiations and continuing to sign up new members is helping.

Wichita Negotiations Update – Nov. 8, 2012

Roadblocks, but talks continue

Negotiations today (Nov. 8) hit some roadblocks. We will keep you updated as talks continue.

Wear a red shirt on Fridays (SPEEA T-shirts are available at the office.)

Display SPEEA desk tents and visibility items

Talk to your coworkers about contract negotiations

Wichita Negotiations Update – Nov. 7, 2012

Wednesday results in limited movement in Wichita

On Wednesday, Nov. 7, both negotiation teams made offers and counter offers. Limited movement was made by the end of the day as talks narrowed down to core issues. Significant differences still exist on job security, benefits and other economic issues.

Talks were scheduled to continue Thursday morning.

Wichita Negotiations Update- Nov. 6, 2012

Movement on both sides, issues
remain for WEU negotiations

The Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) Negotiation Team provided its full first counter-proposal to Spirit Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 6). While there has been movement on both sides, issues involving benefits, compensation, duration and retention are still being worked.

Wichita Negotiations Update- Nov. 5, 2012

Spirit provides initial offer to WEU Negotiations Team

Spirit provided its full first offer to the SPEEA Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) Negotiation Team Monday (Nov. 5). After reviewing the the SPEEA team will prepare and present a counter-proposal to Spirit by Tuesday afternoon.

The company offer includes an unacceptable 10-year contract.

Wichita Negotiations Update- Nov. 2, 2012

WEU Main Table with Spirit AeroSystems
to start economic issues

WICHITA – On Monday, Nov. 5, the SPEEA Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) team is anticipating the first full pass from Spirit AeroSystems on the economic issues SPEEA provided in a proposal to the company in August. The meeting will kick off with an engineering business overview.

At the end of the first week of Main Table talks (Nov. 2), issues surrounding the retention/job security aspect of the contract were the top concern of the remaining non-economic issues.

Extensive conversations have been informative. However, the talks have more clearly defined the differences between the company and the SPEEA team in addressing the interests of SPEEA-represented engineers.

“After talks this week, I am concerned about the direction the company is heading relative to job security and retentions,” said Matthew Joyce, Negotiation Team chair.

Discussions around Performance Management and the Retention Process resulted in some progress today (Oct. 30) during negotiations with Spirit AeroSystems.

Retention discussions involved more difficult conversations. SPEEA made a counter proposal late Tuesday afternoon on retentions. Spirit will respond when negotiations continue Wednesday.
Your team is working diligently to reach agreement on non-economic issues this week.

Economic issues are scheduled to begin Monday (Nov. 5).

Negotiations opened Monday (Oct. 29) with Spirit to negotiate a new contract for our 808 engineers. The company was not prepared to begin discussions on economic issues. Spirit negotiators said they will be ready to present a first pass on economics next Monday (Nov. 5).

WEU Negotiations 2012 - August 13
SPEEA WEU negotiations
update and next stepsThe SPEEA Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) Negotiation Team met today (Aug. 13) with representatives from Spirit management to present our redlined contract proposal based on your feedback and surveys. Links to the proposal and highlights were sent via email to the bargaining unit this morning.

At this meeting, the company presented a general business forecast overview. Although no formal contract agreements were reached today, both teams agreed to attend joint Interest Based Bargaining training provided by the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Services (FMCS) later this month.

The company stated it will review SPEEA’s redlined proposal over the next few weeks. Subcommittee meetings on non-economic issues are tentatively scheduled to begin after Labor Day (Sept. 3). Lunchtime meetings with members of the WEU Negotiation Team will kick off the week of Aug. 20 to address questions regarding the contract proposal.

WEU Negotiations 2012 - August 10SPEEA WEU contract proposal

The Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) Negotiation Team completed their contract proposal and presented it to the members and Spirit AeroSystems Aug. 13.

The contract proposal was based on member surveys, lunchtime meetings and how the current contract was received by members.

Negotiations will move to main table talks with full teams on both sides in late October or early November. The current contract expires Dec. 2.

Negotiation Team members will soon begin holding lunchtime meetings in the workplace to answer questions and comments by members. Contact your Council Rep or the SPEEA office to schedule a meeting in your area.

You can help our team by showing support by wearing your red SPEEA T-shirt, or any red shirt, each Friday. Desk tents and other SPEEA visibility items are available from Council Rep or at the Wichita SPEEA office.

During the upcoming weeks, the WEU Negotiation Team will continue holding lunchtime meetings to talk with members about efforts to secure a new contract. Watch the SPEEA website and the online Midwest calendar for details.

June 20, 2012
WEU Negotiation Team working on proposal

WICHITA – The Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) Negotiation Team continues meeting weekly to develop a contract proposal to present to members and Spirit AeroSystems in early August.

As part of the negotiation process, they met with SPEEA’s attorney, Tom Buescher
for training June 20.

The team also held lunchtime meetings in the past month, which were well attended by about 200 (total). At these meetings, the team repeatedly heard from members concerned about the number of engineers leaving for other companies.

“Attrition was a big issue,” said Bob Brewer, SPEEA Midwest director, “as well as how we are going to address that going into these negotiations.”

The Communication Action Representatives (CAR) continue to sign up new members and relay feedback to the SPEEA negotiation team.

The SPEEA Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) members on the negotiations team are shown above (from left): David Damasauskas, Matthew Joyce (chair) and Joe Heng. Bob Brewer, Midwest director, and BJ Moore, Midwest contract administrator, are working with the team.

WICHITA – In lunchtime meetings throughout Spirit AeroSystems, all SPEEA-represented engineers are invited to give their input on the upcoming contract negotiations.

The Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) Negotiation Team scheduled six meetings from mid-May to early June to give an update on negotiations and get feedback to help them develop a contract offer that addresses major issues and concerns.

The WEU team continues to meet weekly to prioritize issues as it works to finalize a proposal by August. The current contract, which covers more than 750 engineers, expires Dec. 1.

WEU Negotiations Team lunchtime meeting schedule
To schedule a lunchtime meeting contact vickim@speea.org
or call Vicki at the SPEEA office at 682-0262.

The Communication Action Representatives (CAR) launched a membership drive to support negotiations. They’ll help share information about contract issues and relay feedback to the SPEEA negotiation team.

The WEU Negotiation Team members are engineers David Damasauskas, Joe Heng and Matthew Joyce (chair) and staff, including Bob Brewer, SPEEA Midwest director, and BJ Moore, SPEEA contract administrator.

WEU Negotiations Survey now online

To help prepare for negotiations, employees in the Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU)at Spirit AeroSystems are asked to take a few minutes of their personal time to complete the WEU Negotiations Survey. Access the survey at: WEU Spirit Negotiations Survey 2012.

Help protect your contract - apply for WEU Negotiation Team

Do you have ideas for improving the Wichita Engineering Unit (WEU) contract? Get involved by applying for the negotiation team. Deadline to apply is Friday, Dec.2, 2011.

Negotiation team members have a seat at the table with both SPEEA and company leaders to determine what goes inthe contract. SPEEA team members go through training and work with staff to identify and prioritize changes important to the WEU – based on member surveys, case histories and market analysis.

The Selection Committee holds interviews and makes recommendations to the WEU Council. The WEU Bargaining Unit Council Reps elect team members at the Dec. 15, Midwest Council meeting.

Negotiations involve a significant time commitment – particularly in the fall as Main Table talks draw near. In the interim, work takes place at internal and joint committee and subcommittee meetings.

The WEU contract covers 760 employees and expires Dec. 1, 2012.

Recommended Requirements

· Regular SPEEA member for the past three years.

· Active member the past three years – such as being a committee member, Area Rep, Council Rep, and/or Executive Board member. Members currently on the Tellers Committee or Judicial Review Committee cannot serve on the Negotiation Team at the same time.